Indiid has been using Zendesk to manage support tickets for awhile now, but logging in to Zendesk has been done via separate Zendesk passwords or Twitter. Now that Indiid Login is stable we’ve switched to using Indiid to authenticate users with our Zendesk.
We’ve updated Login to display more information about your destination website while you are logging in - you should now get friendly names, descriptions, and terms/privacy links when they are known. We’ve also launched the first alpha version of the Explore site, a portal based around destinations.
Indiid Login now provides SAML-compatible destinations with details of how you logged in. This authentication context information is just a URI describing the sort of credential you used, usually one of the official SAML AuthenticationContext classes.
Indiid.net lets you choose the sort of credentials you’ll use to log in. You can use a password or pick from a variety of other credential types. The default credential type for new accounts at Indiid is called “Passphrase Message”. You’ll get one of these if you don’t choose anything else when you sign up for an account. When you need to authenticate we’ll send you a message containing a short passphrase (a password made up of separate words). Type or paste this in to the password field and you’ll be able to log in.
Most login pages are usually very similar. The show a form with a username field and a password field. This is all most websites need, because for a typical website with its own user database there are only two facts the user needs to provide - the username and password - and there is very little information that the website needs to provide to the user before they log in.
A lot of things have changed in Indiid in the past month, but few are visible on the surface.
The old Indiid blog has been around for about a year now. It was rather dull - it only contained a few technical change notes. It was awkward to work with, being part of the Info application and requiring redeployment for each update. It was also rather too private, being hidden inside the preview, so it was difficult to see. And if Indiid went offline it would probably go offline too.
We could get by with an info site filled with Lorem Ipsum, placeholder kittens and random screenshots for only so long… The various pages explaining Indiid.net have been tidied up to make more sense. In particular, we’ve updated the Welcome page, the FAQ, and the Plans and Pricing page. The quick-signup form on the Welcome page won’t work correctly until the new Signup app is released in a week or so.
The legal aspects of setting up a web-based business are awkward. We want Indiid to be a good service to use and to be very fair and transparent, but we also want to run a sustainable business that doesn’t get destroyed by malicious litigation or abuse.
It’s take awhile but we’ve now got a new, shared authentication framework sitting underneath both Indiid’s Login app and the new Recover app.
